PRUNING AND TRAINING. 223 



and thinning tlie branches themselves, one preserves for 

 the formation of new flower-buds for the following year 

 the sap which would have been absorbed by the parts 

 removed. 



4. Finally, pruning renders the fruit larger, and of 

 better quality. A large part of those nourishing fluids 

 which would have supplied the suppressed parts is 

 turned to the benefit of the fruit on the remaining 

 branches. 



Lindley adds that the time in which a fruit ripens may 

 be changed by skillful pruning. If raspberry canes are 

 cut down to three eyes in the spring, a late summer or 

 autumn crop will be produced. By removing the flower- 

 buds of remontant roses, fine autumn blooms are ob- 

 tained. 



Time for Pruning. — Pruning is performed at two 

 periods during the year. Winter pruning is that given to 

 trees while vegetation is in repose, and summer pruning 

 includes all that a tree or plant receives in its stages of 

 active growth. 



Winter Pruning. — This may be performed at the 

 South directly after the fall of the leaf, and in mild 

 weather through the winter months, until vegetation is 

 about to commence; at the North, from the time the 

 severe frosts are over until the sap begins to move — that 

 is, in February and March. If pruned before the heavy 

 frosts, the cut, being exposed to their severity, does not 

 heal readily and the terminal bud is often destroyed. 

 Pruning must not be undertaken while the branches are 

 frozen, as the wood cuts with great difficulty, and the 

 wounds are torn and commonly heal badly, and the near- 

 est bud generally perishes. If delayed until the shoots 

 begin to start, all the sap from the roots that has been 

 absorbed by the parts of the tree cut off is lost. A great 

 many of the expanding leaf and flower-buds w T ill be 



